Frustrated with both Israel and Iran for breaching the ceasefire he brokered hours earlier, President Donald Trump dropped a different kind of bomb Tuesday morning when speaking to reporters about the conflict.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,” Trump said on the White House lawn. “Do you understand that?”
President Trump on Israel and Iran: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” pic.twitter.com/xrztmebALZ
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 24, 2025
Trump said the two countries might not have broken the ceasefire intentionally, but quickly added that he planned to speak with Israeli leaders about calling off additional attacks. This culminated in an all-caps Truth Social post moments after the exchange, with Trump telling Israel to “BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW.”
“I’m not happy with Israel. When I say ‘Okay, now you have 12 hours,’ you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you’ve got on them,” Trump said, referring to the terms of the ceasefire. “So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy if Israel’s going out this morning.”
The president was preparing to leave Washington to meet with NATO allies in the Netherlands when he stopped to speak to the press.
Trump told NBC News Monday night that he expected the ceasefire to last “forever.” But Iran reportedly broke its terms by launching missiles early Tuesday, and Israel’s defense minister said he instructed the military to “respond forcefully” by striking “regime targets in the heart of Tehran.”
The current escalation in decades of hostility between the two countries began June 13, when Israel launched surprise attacks on Iranian military targets and assassinated key leaders. Israel sought American assistance to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, a request Trump granted by authorizing U.S. airstrikes against three such sites in Iran over the weekend.
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